Glaucoma is the second leading cause of irreversible blindness worldwide. The primary risk factor for the diagnosis and progression of glaucoma is elevated intraocular pressure (IOP), which is created by the outflow of aqueous humor through resistance to outflow. Optical coherence tomography (OCT) images may not be able to detect constrictions in the outflow of the aqueous humor because blood within the outflow vasculature can obscure individual vessels.
Minimally or micro invasive glaucoma surgeries (MIGS) can reduce intraocular pressure (IOP) by bypassing high resistance to aqueous humor (AH) outflow in the juxtacanalicular tissue of the trabecular meshwork (TM) and inner wall of the Schlemm canal (SC). However, the outcomes of MIGS are not predictable because their success is dependent upon many complex and poorly understood factors, including a potential impediment to AH outflow in the aqueous vascular network distal to SC, which may vary from patient to patient.
MIGS are performed with little or essentially no foreknowledge of the morphology of an individual patient's aqueous humor outflow tract. To date, surgeons must review OCT cross-sectional images and attempt to memorize their general location within the patient's morphology.
Thus, there is a need in the art for improved methodologies of predicting or ascertaining the morphology of an individual patient's aqueous humor outflow tract. The present invention satisfies this need.